


Cole's Friends

by serannamyASS



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Adorable Cole, Friendship, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 00:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9149065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serannamyASS/pseuds/serannamyASS
Summary: Inspired by a short story by Tove Jansson entitled "Lucio's Friends". Whilst reading an English translation of the original story, I thought the descriptions of Lucio fit Cole rather well, so I tweaked the story a bunch to fit Cole.Enjoy! I will be producing more... original work in the near future. If you have a character you'd like me to write about in a similar fashion, let me know in the comments!





	

There’s nothing the matter with Cole except that he’s so terribly nice. Maybe it comes easily to someone like him, but it doesn’t seem to me that such endless, almost heart-breaking niceness can be natural for a person who has witnessed so much.

Through his work with the Inquisition he meets a great many people, and most of them consider themselves his friends after one or two encounters. That’s not surprising. Cole excels in meeting their expectations, no, their dearest hopes, for what they will find in a friend. Simply the way he talks and listens, the way he looks at you and smiles, seems to promise an unswerving dependability. And believe me; one can really depend on Cole. He is unshakably loyal, interested, and helpful.

He is not afraid of having opinions, and he defends them vehemently and happily. I get the feeling he does so not so much to persuade as simply to speak, to form words and communicate. He takes great joy from communicating. His vocabulary is excellent but slow, and his choice of words is somewhat dramatic. Cole always chooses the prettiest synonym and gives the most quotidian things a kind of melodious exaggeration, which might be why we don’t always take him seriously.

Cole greets people quietly and without any kind of excess, and yet he gives everyone to believe that no meeting on earth could have granted him greater pleasure. He gives the impression that at any moment he might burst into song or throw his arms around you – in other words, go overboard. It makes us nervous and leads us to speak and think too openly and with larger adjectives than are really called for. We all love Cole. But it is an affection that borders on despair and can even cross over into irritation.

He drinks practically nothing, perhaps a little wine at dinner. Despite his more or less natural melancholy, Cole is a cheerful person, and he can get almost boisterous if something really amuses him. We tell him funny stories (though never about sex) and it’s such a pleasure to watch his tense, expectant face and his boundless joy at the punch line. “That’s hilarious!” he cries. “How can you remember so many jokes?”

Cole’s intense attentiveness is less about people than the things and day-to-day events that surround them. I envy his incredible curiosity and enthusiasm, the way his face goes tight with astonishment and wonder. “Don’t you find it touching that things start growing every spring?” I overheard him say to Sera once. “New green leaves come out in the same places as before?” She was at once repulsed and, I believe, endeared.

It occurred to me once that we should take care of Cole. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I don’t feel this way anymore. Cole isn’t naïve. He’s very smart and can show critical intelligence. I feel certain that none of us get as much delight out of life as he does. Even his childishness, if I may call it that, is completely unconscious, and as a result he isn’t able to use it to manipulate others. For the most part we accept it. It enables him to view the world with a lens the rest of us have no access to.

Sometimes there are long periods during which Cole retreats into his natural melancholy. When this occurs, nothing is really different about him except that he seems… distant. Lifeless, absent, un-Cole-like. I don’t know what it is that depresses him. Perhaps it’s the news that trickles in bit by bit, nearly always bad or worsening. Maybe he is homesick or misses someone who is far away. I don’t know.

He has an explanation for nearly every behaviour a person can express. Often people confess their past and present relationship troubles to him, or else he senses them, and often I will hear him say things such as “You mustn’t forget; she was so young and uncertain…” Always an explanation, always. Explanations do not always bring comfort, though, just as insight doesn’t always trigger forgiveness. And forgiveness doesn’t have to mean that you forget.

But Cole forgets. And they forget him.

Giving him presents is fun. He is always so surprised and pleased, and he never seems to feel weighed down by gratitude. It never occurs to him to rush out and get a present or do you some favour in return. When he does do such things, it is by chance, in passing, and he laughs out loud if you show that you are pleased.

Not only before but especially after spending time with Cole, I always have a strong feeling of expectation that can last for hours. When I try to recall his tone of voice, his silences, even the colour of his eyes, it all evaporates and grows unreal, like a story in a book. It is vaguely annoying. No, it is an odd feeling of helplessness – as if I’d missed or forgotten something important.

What was I writing about? Ah…


End file.
